


Mirror Move

by Samsonet



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:15:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23275360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samsonet/pseuds/Samsonet
Summary: In which Hop goes to an academic conference, meets a girl from Alola, is adopted by a gym leader from Kanto, and learns that not everyone in the world is obsessed with Leon.
Relationships: Hop & Lillie
Comments: 4
Kudos: 65





	Mirror Move

The conference is like nothing Hop has ever seen in his life. Sure, he’s no stranger to crowds -- he’s always been outgoing, and the gym challenge cured him of any shyness he might have still felt -- but Hop somehow feels nervous.

Maybe it’s because these are the top researchers from all over the world. There’s Professor Oak, inventor of the Pokedex. There’s Professor Rowan, whose books Hop has read at least three times each. These are people that Hop wants to make a good impression on. So he follows Sonia, who, for her part, seems completely at ease here. Fair enough, Hop thinks: she must have gone to these things all the time with her grandmother.

Right now she’s talking to a man named Elm, from Johto. They’re speaking Ranseigo. Hop’s been studying the language, but he’s not as fluent as Sonia is. He tries to follow along for a while, but then he hears _him_.

“--nowhere on earth like it, you know?”

It’s a man’s voice, bright and full of energy. If Hop didn’t know any better, he’d say it was Lee’s.

But Lee isn’t here, is he? He’d stayed behind in Galar.

Hop looks around, trying to find the speaker.

He spots him not twenty feet away: a dark-skinned man with a white snapback (just the style Lee likes), a beard (not the same as Lee’s, but close), and a collared shirt that he seems uncomfortable in (Lee’s uncomfortable in posh clothes, too).

The man is talking in Galarian to a couple of women. Hop watches them for a while. Then the man shifts, and suddenly Hop meets eyes with a girl who has been previously hidden from view.

She’s blond, with green eyes. There’s something about her face that reminds him of Gloria -- but that’s just wishful thinking, probably. He’s just a bit homesick.

He waves to her.

She waves back.

Hop taps Sonia’s shoulder. “Sonia, I’m going to go talk to that person. Unless you need me?”

Sonia glances over her shoulder, says something to Elm, then gives Hop a nod. “Go for it! Have fun! Just don’t get lost, okay?”

“Alright!”

And then he goes, jogging over to the girl and reaching out his hand.

“Hello! My name’s Hop! I’m Professor Sonia’s assistant!”

The girl blinks at him, silent. For a moment Hop thinks he misinterpreted, that this girl doesn’t speak Galarian. Then she seems to come to her senses, and she shakes his hand.

“I-it’s nice to meet you! I’m Lillie! I’m here with Professor Kukui. I’m sorry, it’s -- you reminded me of someone.”

Oh. Of course. “Former Champion Leon, right? He’s actually my big brother! Are you a fan?”

Hop is ready to answer some questions about him, maybe tell an embarrassing story or two… but Lillie shakes her head, still seemingly flustered.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know who that is. Um. I have a friend back home, and I was thinking about him when I saw you… Here,” she says, pulling out her phone and showing him her lockscreen. “This is Moon, and that’s Hau.”

It shows two kids, a boy and a girl. They’re both dark-skinned, but they don’t look like siblings. Moon has brown eyes and hair braided like a Wooloo. Hau has grey eyes, and his hair looks more like a Pinap berry.

As Hop examines them, he realizes two things.

First: that Lillie’s lockscreen is a mirror image of his own, with him in Hau’s place and Gloria in Moon’s.

Second: not everyone in the world is obsessed with Leon. If Lillie met Leon now, she’d likely think of him as _Hop’s brother_ before anything else. It’s a weird idea, but Hop kind of likes it.

“Your friends look super nice,” he says, and pulls out his own phone. “You know, you kinda reminded me of my partner back home -- her name’s Gloria.”

“Oh! She’s like Moon!”

“Really? What’s Moon like?”

Lillie tells him all about her. She tells him about a small Pokemon in a bag, about washing up on the beach of Melemele Island, about meeting a quiet girl from Kanto.

Hop in turn tells her about the gym challenge, about earning his way to the championship tournament, about how the quiet girl from Postwick became Galar’s new champion.

He’s never thought of kids from other regions going through the same things he and Gloria did, but hearing Lillie’s story makes him rethink that.

At some point, Sonia comes over. She talks to Kukui, asking him about his research and his family.

Then another voice calls out: “Aloooola!”

The speaker is a tall spiky-haired man Hop doesn’t recognize. Sonia and Kukui seem to know him, though, greeting him with smiles.

“Sonia,” the man says, “Good to see you! How’s Raihan doing? Has he beat Leon yet?”

“Sadly, no. He’s not giving up, though!”

“A man after my own heart.” The man leans forward, seemingly just noticing Hop. “Who’s this? Did ya get an assistant of your own, Professor Magnolia?”

Sonia grins. “Yep! This is my assistant, Hop! Hop, this is Blue -- he was the champion of Kanto!”

“For five minutes, but who’s counting? I’m the eighth gym leader of the Indigo League now, but I’m doing research, too. Nice to meet you, Hop!”

Nice to meet you? For some reason, that strikes Hop as strange. Obviously Blue knew something about the league: he even mentioned Leon! But to not comment on the family resemblance? Was Blue trying to be considerate, or…?

Blue’s voice cuts through his thoughts: “Yeah, I’m presenting some of my own research this weekend. I know I should be focused on the academic side, but I’m still a trainer, you know? Being around so many people from different regions… I really want to battle someone!”

Kukui nods. “I definitely know the feeling! There’s nothing like a good battle to get your heart racing.”

“Exactly! Hey, why don’t you battle me?”

Hop notices how Lillie cringes at the words.

Kukui seems to notice, too, because he gives a sheepish smile and rubs the back of his neck. “I’d love to, but I have to be at a presentation in half an hour… I can’t be a bad role model for my assistant, right?”

“Yeah…” Blue sighs, but a second later his eyes are bright again. “Sonia! Do you want to battle me? Our last match was _incredible_.”

And Sonia… Sonia looks like she’s seriously considering it. She looks at Hop; Hop raises an eyebrow, curious.

“Sorry, I can’t either. But you know… Hop’s a pretty strong trainer himself! He’s actually the rival of the current Galar Champion! What do you say, Hop? Can you give Blue a good thrashing for me?”

 _A good thrashing for me._ That’s the way sponsors talk to their endorsees. Hearing Sonia talk about him like that makes him feel proud, somehow.

He nods.

Blue grins. “So you’ve got brains and brawn, huh? This will be fun. Come on, let’s go outside and you can show big brother Blue just what you’re made of!”

 _I already have a big brother_ , Hop thinks, but it feels weird to say it out loud.

“Lillie,” Kukui says, “Why don’t you go with those two, study their battle? See if they use any moves we don’t have in Alola.”

Lillie gives him a skeptical look, but then Hop reaches out to her. She takes his hand.

The three of them head outside.

The conference building has a pitch outside. It makes sense: there had to be events for trainers here, too. Blue walks to the far end, and Hop takes his place opposite him.

“I know you two have to go back to your professors soon, so how does this sound: one-on-one. No items, no mega evolution or dynamaxing. Or z-moves, if you do that?”

Hop blinks.

“I’m presuming you don’t, but I wanted to say it just in case. Something quick and easy, right? So here we go. Pigeot! You’re up!”

He sends out a Pokemon Hop has never seen before. It’s a bird, that much is obvious, but it’s secondary typing (if it has one) isn’t clear.

Hop left most of his team at home, what with the difficulties of transregional travel and climate, but he’s still got a choice about who to send out to face him. Zamazenta would be overkill. Dubwool is reliable, but sending an earth-bound Pokemon against a flying-type is putting oneself at a disadvantage.

“Corviknight, go!”

The battle begins.

“Hurricane!”

“Steel Wing!”

Hop will say this for Blue: he is definitely as skilled as a once-champion-now-gym-leader should be. It turns out Pigeot is a normal/flying-type, which shouldn’t be much of a challenge for Corviknight’s steel/flying defenses -- but when Pigeot hits, it hits _hard_.

“As expected from the champion’s rival,” Blue says, “you’re quite a challenge!”

“Same to you, Gym Leader! Corviknight, Steel Wing!”

Twenty minutes later, the battle nearing its end. It’s still anybody’s match, and, man, Hop loves narrow matches. Lee always tried to crush his opponent as quickly and mercilessly as possible, but Hop finds those battles much less fun to participate in than they are to watch.

He’s about to give Corviknight what may be the finishing blow when _it_ appears.

It drops out of the sky in a blinding orange light at first. There’s something like a meteorite about it, like a Wishing Star… but no, this is too controlled. Whatever this thing is, it’s alive.

The light dims, and right in the middle of the battlefield floats the weirdest looking Scorbunny Hop has ever seen.

It must be the weirdest Pokemon Blue has ever seen, either, because he’s staring at it, too. Even Lillie seems caught by surprise.

The weird Scorbunny floats up to Hop.

It grins, giggling.

Then it reaches out one finger and boops him on the nose.

“Wha… Who are you, little buddy?”

The Pokemon doesn’t answer. As quickly as it appeared, it shoots away.

Hop looks towards the others. Blue and Lillie look back at him. Well. That was weird.

He pats his face, getting back into battle mode. “Corviknight! Drill Peck!”

Corviknight has a faster reaction time than Hop does. The moment he shouts the command, his Pokemon is already carrying it out.

Thirty seconds later, Blue’s Pigeot faints.

They return their Pokemon and cross the pitch to shake hands.

“You did good, kid,” Blue says.

“Thanks. But… what was that Pokemon?”

“No clue. Lillie?”

Lillie shakes her head. “I’ve never seen that Pokemon before, either.”

“Victini!”

All three of them turn in the direction of the voice.

The speaker is a man even taller than Blue. He seems older than Sonia, maybe in his early forties if Hop had to guess. His hair is greying at the temples. He wears the lab coat of a professor.

“Pardon the interruption,” the man says. “I am Auden Wyatt, the regional professor of Chero.”

Hop has… never heard of that place. But there are a lot of region’s he’s never heard of.

Wyatt seems to guess what he’s thinking, because the next thing he says is: “Chero is a few regions over from Unova. We share many of the same Pokemon, which is why I can say with complete certainty that the Pokemon that just visited us was Victini.”

“A Victini, huh? It’s cute! Are they common here?”

Wyatt rushes up, grabbing him by the shoulders. “No, you child! Not _a_ Victini. _The_ Victini. It is a mythical Pokemon that promises victory to anyone it allies itself with. I have spent years researching it, I came to Unova because I’d heard it’d been seen several times here -- and now we have seen it with our own eyes! Don’t you realize how extraordinary this is?”

_Just another page in the tale of my legend._

Wyatt is still holding him by the shoulders.

“Hey, buddy,” Blue says, “Let go of him, okay?”

“Oh -- of course.” He backs away, brushing his sleeve in an embarrassed motion. “I let my excitement get the better of me. My apologies, young…”

“Hop.”

“Young Hop. And thank you, both to you and to Mr. Oak here. This is amazing! You don’t understand what it would do for my research if I could convince Victini to agree to some examination…”

Blue walks up, putting a hand on Hop’s back and gesturing to Lillie to stand up. “Yeah, that’d be great, pops. I gotta get these kids back to their guardians, okay? Smell ya later.”

When Wyatt is out of earshot, Hop asks: “Is something wrong?”

“It’s nothing.” Blue grimaces. “Well. I’m not trying to gossip for the sake of gossiping, you know? But I’ve met that guy before, and he’s… I don’t know. He gives me the creeps. Maybe I’m seeing things.”

“Thank you for looking out for us, then,” Lillie says.

“No problem. That’s what big brothers do, right? Hey -- there’s Professor Kukui.”

With another thank-you, Lillie leaves.

When they’re back around the crowd, Blue and Hop part ways.

It doesn’t take long for Hop to find Sonia again. She’s waiting outside room A49, right where they’re scheduled to be.

“How’d your battle go?” she asks with a smile.

He tells her all about it.

The first presentations will be starting soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya! I hope you like this! You can find me on twitter @samsonet3 !


End file.
